Friday, March 15, 2013

It’s all falling into place now for N.C. State. C.J. Leslie is replicating his postseason form of a year ago. Lorenzo Brown is rounding into health. Scott Wood is making shots. Richard Howell is Richard Howell.

Virginia posed little opposition Friday N.C. State took control early as Leslie scored eight of N.C. State’s first 17 points, then pulled away when Wood hit 3-pointers on back-to-back-to-back possessions early in the second half for a 75-56 win.

Just as he was in Atlanta last year, Leslie was dominant. He took the ball to the rim. He made (most of) his free throws. He rebounded. He blocked shots. He even hit a few jump shots. He displayed the full array of his game, as he has at times this season, but without consistency.

After scoring 15 points and pulling down seven rebounds in Thursday’s win over Virginia Tech and 17 points with 11 rebounds on Friday, Leslie has 84 points in his past five ACC tournament games, going back to last season.

Wood, meanwhile, went 7-for-12 from 3-point range -- his most 3-pointers since the Florida State game his freshman year, when he went 7-for-11 -- and finished with 23 points.

Not that there weren’t some of the same warning signs for State -- Howell left the game for a little while with a thigh injury and T.J. Warren picked up a second-half technical foul that gave Virginia some life at a time when the Cavaliers were otherwise finished.

The injury didn’t seem to slow Howell, even if he was grabbing at his right leg while trotting down the court, but it’ll be interesting to see how it responds overnight before facing Miami on Saturday.

With the surging Wolfpack facing the top-seeded Hurricanes in the first semifinal and the potential for a third Duke-Carolina meeting, Saturday is shaping up awfully well. So, at the moment, is the Wolfpack.

The Wolfpack rose. They allowed Virginia to linger in the first half at Greensboro Coliseum Friday. The Cavaliers could have competed if they had hit some easy and open shots. But they didn’t. The longer the game wore on, the more difficult Virginia’s shots became.

N.C. State looked like the team many of us anticipated before the season began. The Wolfpack imposed their talent on a lesser Virginia team. The Cavaliers had nobody who could match up with C.J. Leslie, and Leslie knew it.

About this blog

David Scott has been with the Observer for 28 years and has written about ACC, SEC and other college sports in the Charlotte region. He covers Wake Forest, South Carolina and college soccer for the Observer and (Raleigh) News & Observer.

J.P. Giglio covers the ACC for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1997, and the Observer.

Andrew Carter covers the North Carolina Tar Heels for the Observer and News & Observer.

Laura Keeley covers the Duke Blue Devils for the Observer and News & Observer. Follow her on Twitter.

Chip Alexander covers the Carolina Hurricanes and college football for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1979, and the Observer.

Luke DeCock has worked for The News & Observer since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist for the Observer and News & Observer in August 2008.

Tim Crothers is an author and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated who is joining the sports staff to write a regular column during the rest of the college basketball season.